The First Discussion!

Posted by Makyo on Jun 25, 2013

Bookmarfs! will be having its first discussion this coming Saturday the 29th at 3PM Pacific / 6PM Eastern / 10PM UTC. We will be discussing our book of the month for June, Octavia Butler’s Fledgling. Here’s a little bit about how the whole process will work:

We’ll be scheduling a Google+ Hangout On Air soon. Google+ Hangouts are a type of video conferencing system that allows users to run a discussion or meeting in a natural fashion. The On Air feature allows users to watch the hangout live (or, well, with a slight delay), as well has have the entire thing automatically posted on YouTube after the fact. This is good news for those of you who can’t make the actual event itself, as you’ll still be able to see the entirety of the discussion. Several, if not all, of the panel members will be there in the hangout, and any additional spots (up to ten) will be first-come-first-serve, though we ask that if you do wish to join the hangout, that you have finished the book and be willing to take an active part in the discussion :o)

In addition to the G+ Hangout, we’ll be watching both twitter and IRC in order to accommodate as many folk as possible. You can @mention us on Twitter with any questions you have about the book or any points you’d like to make and we’ll do our best to address them in the hangout. At least some of us will be in #bookmarfs on IRC (both Anthrochat and Furnet) for those who would like to join us there. Again, we’ll bring up points and questions we see in channel in the hangout as we can.

The general structure of the hangout will be pretty simple and open-ended:

Intro to Bookmarfs - about the club

Introductions - a sentence or two about each of us

Introduce the book - brief synopsis/blurb type thing

Go around everyone in the hangout for a brief summary of their experience with the book - what they liked, what they didn’t like, etc.

Devolve into general discussion - keep an eye on IRC/twitter/email to include discussion from others

Wrap up with tie-ins to furry

Conclude with next month’s book - brief synopsis/blurb type thing

We’re looking forward to hanging out and marfin’ ‘bout books with all of you keeping up with us! We also understand that this is kind of an experimental first-try at things and if something doesn’t work out, we’ll push to improve it in the future.